Grammy Award-winning artist, producer, composer and Fugees co-founder Wyclef Jean will be this year’s headline performer for the VersoFest 2026 Friday night concert event.
Wyclef will be performing with his full band. The March 27 concert will start at 8 pm in the Library’s Trefz Forum; doors open at 7 pm. Tickets are $125 and available now at VersoFest.org.
Wyclef's performance will support Music Will, the largest nonprofit music education program for schools in the United States.
VersoFest is The Westport Library’s annual music and media conference and festival where knowledge is shared and inspiration is discovered — a forum for media creators, artists, and fans to converge.
This is the fifth year for VersoFest, which takes place at Verso Studios at The Westport Library, a media resource and production hub that serves as an empowered cultural and learning center. A library branch of the 21st century, Verso Studios provides programming and commercial services as well as educational and content creation opportunities.
Wyclef is the second act announced for this year’s festival. Formed in Connecticut and now playing out of New York, the rising rock band The Thing will perform the VersoFest kickoff concert on Friday, February 27. Click here for tickets and more information.
The music that Wyclef has written, performed, and produced — both as a solo superstar and as founder and guiding member of the Fugees — has been a consistently powerful, pop cultural force for more than two decades.
Hits include the Fugees’ indelible reinvention of Roberta Flack’s 1973 ballad “Killing Me Softly”; the chart-topping “Hips Don’t Lie” with Shakira, which he co-wrote, produced, and is featured on; Wyclef’s own “Gone Till November”; “Ghetto Superstar” (Pras feat. Wyclef); Carlos Santana’s No. 1 single “Maria, Maria” (featuring Jean); and the late Whitney Houston’s “My Love is Your Love.”
Wyclef has been rewarded for his creativity and adventurousness with three Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe nomination and an Emmy nomination, a spot on the cover of Rolling Stone’s “Top 50 Hip Hop Players,” and the opportunity to make music with such legends as Michael Jackson; Queen; Mick Jagger; Paul Simon; Earth, Wind & Fire; Kenny Rogers; and Tom Jones.
As a solo artist, Wyclef has released six albums that have sold nearly nine million copies worldwide, including his 1997 debut The Carnival, 2000’s aptly titled The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book, and his 2017 album, The Carnival III: Fall and Rise of a Refugee.
And this is an opportunity to see him perform in an intimate venue, as one of just 700 concertgoers congregating in the Library’s unique Trefz Forum space.
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This is the fifth year for VersoFest, the Library’s annual music and media conference and festival where knowledge is shared and inspiration is discovered — a forum for media creators, artists, and fans to converge. VersoFest includes concert performances; conversations with leading lights in music and media; workshops that provide creators the opportunity to deconstruct, improve, and hone their craft; knowledge opportunities; art installations; and much, much more.
Past VersoFest guests include hip hop legend Chuck D; established hit-makers the Wallflowers, Spin Doctors, and the Smithereens; up-and-coming bands Sunflower Bean and the Lemon Twigs; the Roots lead emcee Black Thought; hardcore punk pioneer Henry Rollins; rockers Lez Zeppelin; famed producers Steve Lillywhite (U2, Dave Matthews Band) and Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T. Rex); Psychedelic Furs frontman Richard Butler; the Doors drummer John Densmore; Cramps drummer Miriam Linna; Alice Cooper Group bassist Dennis Dunaway; hip-hop originators Tony Crush and Grand Wizzard Theodore; David Letterman music director Paul Shaffer; SNL Beehive Queen Christine Ohlman; and a wide array of authors, photographers, artists, and thought leaders.
